UFC 144 Fighter Salaries

Some guys can’t help but win.  Take Rampage Jackson, for instance.  Despite being fined 20% of his purse due to missing weight for UFC 144, and despite putting on a rather dismal performance and getting beat by Ryan Bader on Saturday, Jackson still walked away with fatter pockets than anyone else on the card.  Rampage was actually one of five fighters who got a six-figure payday from the event.

Before we go any further, we should note that Japan doesn’t release fighter pay info, so none of the following salary data for the event is official.  However, you can get a fairly accurate picture of a fighter’s pay based on official purse info released from past fights.  So, based on that info, here is the estimated pay breakdown for the 24 fighters that traded blows at the event (but please remember – this is only an estimate, not official info, especially for any fighters that made their UFC debuts at the event or for Mark Hunt, whose salary has never been publically revealed since joining the UFC).  These numbers obviously also don’t include any PPV revenue, undisclosed bonuses and/or sponsorship money any of these fighters may have made.

Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson: $200,000 ($250,000 to show, minus $50,000 for missing weight)

Frankie Edgar: $185,000 ($120,000 to show, $65,000 Fight of the Night bonus)

Jake Shields: $150,000 ($75,000 to show, $75,000 win bonus)

Benson Henderson: $131,000 ($33,000 to show, $33,000 win bonus, $65,000 Fight of the Night bonus)*

Takanori Gomi: $100,000 ($50,000 to show, $50,000 win bonus)

Ryan Bader: $98,000 ($24,000 to show, $24,000 win bonus, $50,000 from Jackson for missing weight)

Anthony Pettis: $89,000 ($12,000 to show, $12,000 win bonus, $65,000 Knockout of the Night bonus)

Vaughan Lee: $81,000 ($8,000 to show, $8,000 win bonus, $65,000 Submission of the Night bonus)

Cheick Kongo: $70,000

Riki Fukuda: $56,000 ($28,000 to show, $28,000 win bonus)

Tim Boetsch: $56,000 ($28,000 to show, $28,000 win bonus)

Yoshihiro Akiyama: $45,000

Yushin Okami: $42,000

Takeya Mizugaki: $34,000 ($17,000 to show, $17,000 win bonus – the UFC felt he should have won so they paid him his win bonus)

Hatsu Hioki: $34,000 ($17,000 to show, $17,000 win bonus)

Chris Cariaso: $24,000 ($12,000 to show, $12,000 win bonus)

Joe Lauzon: $24,000

Mark Hunt: $20,000 ($10,000 to show, $10,000 win bonus)

Norifumi Yamamoto: $15,000

Issei Tamura: $12,000 ($6,000 to show, $6,000 win bonus)

Bart Palaszewski: $12,000

Steve Cantwell: $10,000

Eiji Mitsuoka: $6,000

Zhang Tiequan: $6,000